PetSmart offers pet parents four easy and impactful ways to help pets in need this holiday season

From Gifts that Give Back to Feeding Pets in Need, PetSmart and its Shoppers Will be Helping Pets in Need all Season Long

PHOENIX, 2017-Dec-01 — /EPR Retail News/ — With less than one month of shopping left before the holidays, millions of shoppers are on the hunt for the perfect gifts. With the season also reminding shoppers to consider giving back to the causes they are passionate about, PetSmart is sharing “Four Ways to Help” pets in need this holiday season, including gifts that are perfect for both people and pets.

“At PetSmart, we love pets and believe they make us better people. That’s why PetSmart Charities, the leading funder of animal welfare across North America, is our cause of choice this holiday season and all year-round,” said Michelle Friedman, vice president of corporate communications, PetSmart. “We know our shoppers love pets just as much as we do, so this holiday season we’re offering pet parents four easy and impactful ways to help pets in need just by stopping by at one of PetSmart’s nearly 1,600 stores and PetSmart.com.”

1. Buy Gifts that Give Back

When you purchase any item from PetSmart’s exclusive Holiday Philanthropic Collection, 10 percent of sales will be donated to PetSmart Charities. The line features seven commemorative Chance, Lucky & Friends plush toys perfect for kids and pets alike (they have squeakers!), as well as 12 pet-themed blankets with sayings like “I Wine, She Whines” and “Drinking Buddies,” great for cuddling up with pets during chilly winter nights. On Giving Tuesday, November 28, 100 percent of the sales from the entire plush toy line will be donated to PetSmart Charities. Gift cards are also popular holiday gifts, and PetSmart’s Chance and Lucky branded gift cards also give back 10 percent of the amount placed on them to PetSmart Charities. Last year’s Holiday Philanthropic Collection generated $585,000 for PetSmart Charities to help pets in need. Don’t need another plush toy at home? Consider purchasing and donating one instead. Every PetSmart store partners with a local charity in their community, and invites shoppers to purchase and donate a plush toy to their toy drive. Last year, more than one million plush toys were collected and delivered to pets and children in need in the local communities across North America.

2. Donate and Help PetSmart Charities Do Good

When PetSmart shoppers donate to help pets in need using the pin pads located at the registers in every store, 100 percent of the donations are given directly to PetSmart Charities. In turn, the leading funder of animal welfare effectively uses 90 cents of every dollar raised to fund its mission: to find lifelong, loving homes for all pets by supporting programs and thought leadership that bring people and pets together. From funding adoption events at PetSmart stores to help keep pets and people together during challenging life circumstances, and making pet therapy programs possible at children’s hospitals and other facilities, donations to PetSmart Charities makes a difference in the lives of both pets and people. To receive a tax receipt for a donation, you can also choose to give online at www.petsmartcharities.org.

3. Buy a Bag, PetSmart Gives a Meal to a Pet in Need

Together, PetSmart, PetSmart Charities and PetSmart shoppers are making sure no pet goes hungry this holiday season. Every time pet parents buy a bag of dog or cat food at PetSmart (through Dec. 31, 2017), the retailer donates a meal to a pet in need. This historic Buy a Bag, Give a Meal™ program was launched March 1 in celebration of PetSmart’s 30th anniversary this year. To date, this philanthropic program has generated 55 million meals. PetSmart Charities is the program’s pet food distribution partner and has so far delivered 250-plus semi-truckloads of more than 35 million meals – 3,683 tons of pet food – to animal welfare agencies and food banks across 35 states in the U.S. and five provinces in Canada. Additional truckload deliveries will take place in 2018.

4. Adopt a Pet, Give Them a Forever Home

Thinking about adding a four-legged member to the family? Many do at the holiday season and it’s a very special gift for the entire family. Adorable, adoptable pets can be found at the PetSmart Charities Adoption Center in nearly every PetSmart store. Experts from PetSmart Charities say adopting a four-legged friend before the holidays could help ensure a more successful new pet transition and enrich holiday celebrations with the new family member. Plus, when you adopt a pet, not only will you be saving them from their stay in a shelter, you’ll be giving them the forever family they deserve. Two out of every 10 pets adopted in North America are facilitated at a PetSmart store. In fact, since beginning the in-store adoption program in 1994, PetSmart, PetSmart Charities and its 3,500 adoption partners have found forever homes for more than 7.6 million pets. From finding the perfect pet for your household, to providing expert advice and savings through PetSmart’s free Adoption Kit, PetSmart is here to help every step of the way when a family decides to bring a new pet home for the holidays.

“We’re immensely thankful to our corporate partner, PetSmart, and its generous shoppers for their unwavering support of PetSmart Charities,” said David Haworth, DVM, Ph.D. and president of PetSmart Charities. “Together, this holiday season we’ll be enhancing the lives of shelter pets and the people who love and care for them through grants, pet food donations and helping pets to find the forever homes they so richly deserve.”

Since 1994, PetSmart Charities has granted more than $332 million to support animal welfare agencies and registered nonprofits who share their mission to find lifelong, loving homes for all pets by supporting programs that bring people and pets together.

For more information about PetSmart, the Buy a Bag, Give a Meal program and the holiday philanthropic collection of products, please click here. To learn more about the Four Ways to Help and the Holiday Philanthropic Collection, please visit PetSmart.com.

About PetSmart®
PetSmart, Inc. is the largest specialty pet retailer of services and solutions for the lifetime needs of pets. At PetSmart, we love pets, and we believe pets make us better people. Every day with every connection, PetSmart’s passionate associates help bring pet parents closer to their pets so they, together, can live more fulfilled lives. This vision impacts everything we do for our customers, the way we support our associates and how we give back to our communities. We employ approximately 55,000 associates, operate more than 1,500 pet stores in the United States, Canada and Puerto Rico, as well as more than 200 in-store PetSmart® PetsHotel® dog and cat boarding facilities. PetSmart provides a broad range of competitively priced pet food and products, as well as pet-focused services such as dog training, pet grooming, pet boarding, PetSmart™ Doggie Day Camp™ and pet adoption. PetSmart, together with non-profits PetSmart Charities® and PetSmart Charities® of Canada, invite more than 3,500 animal welfare organizations to bring adoptable pets into stores so they have the best chance possible of finding a forever home. Through this in-store adoption program and other signature events, PetSmart has facilitated more than 7.6 million adoptions – more than any other brick-and-mortar organization. The company’s portfolio of digital resources for pet parents includes PetSmart.com, petMD.com, Pawculture.com, AllPaws, an online pet adoption platform that helps potential pet parents find the perfect pet to adopt based on their home, family and lifestyle, as well as BlogPaws, the world’s first pet blogger and influencer network. Through these digital platforms, PetSmart offers the most comprehensive online pet supplies and pet care information in the U.S. In celebration of its 30th anniversary, PetSmart launched its Buy a Bag, Give a Meal™ program in March 2017. For every bag of cat or dog food purchased March 1 – Dec. 31, 2017, PetSmart will donate a meal to pets in need and expects to donate more than 60 million meals in 2017*. In May 2017, PetSmart acquired Chewy.com, a leading online retailer of pet food and products in the U.S., which operates as an independent subsidiary.

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*Ends 12/31/17. 5 oz. dog food, 1.5 oz. cat food donated to PetSmart Charities to feed dogs and cats in need. See details at petsmart.com/giveameal. The actual number of meals donated is based on dog and cat food bags sold. The meal donation estimate is based on historic sales for similar time periods. No guaranteed amount. Rescue Bank and Feeding America will help distribute a large portion of the pet food donation in the U.S.

About PetSmart Charities®PetSmart Charities, Inc. is a nonprofit animal welfare organization with a mission to find lifelong, loving homes for all pets by supporting programs and thought leadership that bring people and pets together. In addition to finding homes for almost 500,000 shelter pets each year through its in-store adoption program in all PetSmart stores across the U.S. and Puerto Rico, PetSmart Charities provides funding to non-profits aligned with its mission through four key areas of grant support: Preventing Pet Homelessness; Helping Shelter Pets Thrive; Supporting the Bond Between People and Pets; and Emergency Relief and Disaster Support. Each year, millions of generous PetSmart shoppers help pets in need by donating to PetSmart Charities using the pin pads at checkout registers inside PetSmart stores. In turn, PetSmart Charities efficiently uses 90 cents of every dollar donated and has become the leading funder of animal welfare in North America, donating more than $300 million to date. PetSmart Charities, a 501(c)(3) organization, has received the Four Star Rating from Charity Navigator, an independent organization that reports on the effectiveness, accountability and transparency of nonprofits, for the past 14 years in a row – placing it among the top one percent of charities rated by this organization. To learn more visit www.petsmartcharities.org.
Follow PetSmart Charities on Twitter: @PetSmartChariTs
Find PetSmart Charities on Facebook: Facebook.com/PetSmartCharities
See PetSmart Charities on YouTube: YouTube.com/PetSmartCharitiesInc

About PetSmart Charities® of CanadaPetSmart Charities of Canada is a registered Canadian charity with a mission to find lifelong, loving homes for all pets by supporting programs and thought leadership that bring people and pets together. In addition to finding homes for more than 25,000 shelter pets each year through its in-store adoption program in all PetSmart stores, PetSmart Charities of Canada provides funding to registered charities aligned with its mission through four key areas of grant support: Preventing Pet Homelessness; Helping Shelter Pets Thrive; Supporting the Bond Between People and Pets; and Emergency Relief and Disaster Support. Each year, millions of generous PetSmart shoppers help pets in need by donating to PetSmart Charities of Canada using the pin pads at checkout registers inside PetSmart stores. In turn, PetSmart Charities efficiently uses 89 cents of every dollar donated and has become a leading funder of animal welfare in Canada, donating nearly $12 million to date. PetSmart Charities of Canada is a member of Imagine Canada and is independent from PetSmart, Inc. To learn more, visit www.petsmartcharities.ca